Shawn and Mimi Bopping Through the Universe
by starwefter
Summary: A cross-show story featuring Mimi and an original character traveling through Digimon, Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, Pokemon and Yugioh, with a couple of micro-references to SpongeBob and The Beatles: Yellow Submarine. Pictures available on deviantART
1. Down Alice's Rabbit Hole

A few short notes:

The following story has been written for a fellow contributor to the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forums as a present. Shawn's animation love is Mimi from _Digimon_. In other fanfiction written for him by another forum member who goes by the name Lord Kitsune, Mimi has grown up and Shawn has wooed and wed her. They have gone on to start a family with triplet girls.

Earlier this year Shawn requested fanfiction or fanart for his birthday. After some conversation back and forth, we determined that as I didn't really know much about _Digimon_, he would accept something from shows I was more familiar with. This is the result.

The following story has a handful of original characters, and crosses a number of different animation shows. Some of the characters could perhaps be accused of being mary sues, but some people will accuse any original character of being a mary sue. So if you don't like original characters, please consider yourself warned.

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

Kitsune is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Lord Kitsune and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

Dayzee, Psychedelic-man, Abby Michaels, Kobe and various secretaries and other minor dramatis personæ are original characters and are copyright to me.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts including Mimi, Izzy, Tai, Willis, T.K., Matt, Palmon, Tanemon, Togemon, Lillymon, Tentomon, Digimon, Digiworld, Digivice, Digivolution, Digidestined, and anything else known as "Digi-" are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

_Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok_ and associated characters and concepts including Loki, Fenrir, Mayura, Yamino, Frey, Heimdall, Thor, Neo-Skidbladnir, the pig Gullinbursti, the staff Laevateinn, Ecchan – well, most of these were originally dreamed up by the ancient Scandinavians, but in this case they all are © Sakura Kinoshita

_Pokémon_ and associated characters and concepts including Ash, Dawn, Brock, Pikachu, Croagunk, Staravia, Piplup, Team Rocket, James, Jessie, Meowth, Wobbuffet, Nurse Joy, Paul, Gary Oak, the Johto, Kanto, Hoenn and Sinnoh regions, the Devon Corporation, Pokémon, Pokéball, Pokédex, Pokécenter, and anything else known as "Poké-" are © Pokémon; © Nintendo/Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK Inc.; © CHUNSOFT

_SpongeBob_ and associated characters and concepts including SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star, and Sandy Cheeks are © Viacom International Inc.

_The Beatles: Yellow Submarine_ and associated characters and concepts, in this case the Yellow Submarine itself, are © Hearst Corp. (King Features Syndicate Div.) and Subafilms Ltd. The Yellow Submarine sequence is loosely inspired by the original movie and Peter Max scenes therein. (The Yellow Submarine really exists; I believe it is in Monaco.)

_Yu-gi-oh! _and associated characters and concepts including Joey Wheeler, Mai Valentine, Téa Gardner, Yugi Mutou, Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba, Tristan Taylor, and the game Duel Monsters are © Kazuki Takahashi. (The game _Yugioh!_ which is based on Duel Monsters is registered to Konami Corp. and Upper Deck Entertainment).

**Down Alice's Rabbit Hole**

Shawn was sitting at his computer doing research – the good news was he had found some really good web pages for information – the bad news was that one of the better pages was in French. And another was in German. Google's "translate the page?" had teased him by rendering them into something that was not exactly gibberish, but was not exactly understandable either; being just clear enough to let him know he really wanted this information and just garbled enough to make it totally useless. The image search was worse – the best images were on a site that looked to be mostly, if he was lucky, in Japanese – Mimi could help him with that.

So now he was trying to run Babblefish, hoping for a better translation. His first inkling that something was wrong was when his translation suddenly, inexplicably, changed languages – instead of English he was getting – what? Italian maybe? Even as he watched, it changed alphabets to Cyrillic.

Suddenly Palmon appeared, followed by Mimi rushing into the room. "Shawn, Palmon says something is causing the Digiworld to go totally haywire!" Mimi cried.

"Yes! It's trying to – " and Palmon stopped, momentarily at a loss for words. "– unravel," she decided. "Like a sweater." Palmon had once seen someone pull out stitches in her knitting in order to fix a mistake she had made in a previous row, and the image had stayed with her. She looked extremely serious, even on the edge of panic. A hole in the fabric of her reality could be a disaster.

The screen of Shawn's computer switched again – to Klingon maybe? – which degenerated into a bunch of incomprehensible ones and zeros. Windowlike squares started to appear floating in the air, filled with quickly scrolling numbers of ASCII and hexadecimal code. These, too, began to degenerate into zeros and ones.

"We'd better get hold of the others." Shawn leaped from his chair and started toward Mimi, but suddenly at his feet a glowing circle opened up, filled with more ones and zeros pouring down its edge like sand from a collapsing dune. The carpet had disappeared and the expanding circle entangled Shawn's legs. As he started to slide into the funnel that moments ago had been solid floor, Mimi lunged...

...and grabbed...

...and caught his wildly flailing hand...

For a moment they hung, balanced, on the edge of a suddenly insane reality, and then the shifting sand of digits disappeared from beneath Mimi's knees and both were tumbling through numbers away from the receding circle of rationality that was their living room.

Palmon cried, "Wait for me!" but it was too late. The last thing Palmon heard was Mimi's despairing shout...

"Take care of the kids!!"


	2. Out of the Mirror

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

_Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok_ and associated characters and concepts are © Sakura Kinoshita

**Out of the Mirror**

Shawn and Mimi fell down through a glowing tube of ones and zeros. At the bottom loomed – a mirror? – a pane of glass? Whatever it was, they were going to collide – !

...No. Instead of it shattering, Shawn felt as though he'd just dived into a still swimming pool, breaking a perfectly flat surface into ever expanding ripples. Or rather he felt he'd belly-flopped.

He landed with a plop on the grass of the real world. With an "oof!" Mimi fell on top of him and rolled off to come face to face with a small black puppy.

"Woof!" said the dog. "Bow-wow-wow-wow!" It had a very musical bark, almost as if it were singing. It also sounded very put out – Shawn could almost hear it swearing at him, cursing him out for nearly falling on it.

"Oooooooo! A Strange Mystery!" A very lovely girl with long pink hair just the color of their daughter's stood a short distance away with shining eyes and clasped hands. "Hush, Fenrir!" she called to the dog, who immediately ran to her, wagging.

Fenrir? She didn't look like the type to name a cute puppy after a huge legendary Norse wolf. If anything, she looked like a rather clueless variety of cheerleader – the kind who'd name a dog Fluffy, or Powderpuff, or Candyfloss.

Shawn stood up, brushed himself off, and reached down to help Mimi up. She'd managed to keep her hat on through it all – he'd always been amazed by how she could do this. He'd have suspected SuperGlue, if he hadn't lifted it off her head himself any number of times to kiss her.

"Uh ... hi..." Shawn said, unoriginally. He wasn't sure where they were – Central Park maybe? How had they ended up outside? He felt like the rug had been yanked out from under him – then he caught himself – being that the carpet had actually disappeared below his feet, that was a little too literal for comfort. Mentally he lunged for sanity, clamped down against hysteria, and took a deep breath.

"We'd better tell Loki," bubbled the pink-haired girl. "It's a real mystery for us to solve!"

Shawn was feeling more confused by the moment. "Tell _who_?" he asked. "Tell him _what_? _What's_ a mystery?"

"You fell out of a window in the sky," the girl said, as though it was the most natural thing in the world, and happened all the time. "Come on."

She ran off with the puppy, so there was nothing to do but follow.


	3. Where Did They Go?

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below show and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

**Where Did They Go?**

Back in the real world Palmon, panicking, had called out the whole team. Everyone who lived in New York was gathered at Shawn and Mimi's home trying desperately to figure out what had happened, while putting as brave a face as possible on things in order to keep from frightening the triplets.

"They're away helping solve something in the Digiworld," Willis told the children. "They'll be back soon. They would've told you they were leaving but it was an emergency and they didn't have time to stop and explain."

The children, of course, like children everywhere, were far smarter than children are often given credit for – so they knew better. Mom and Dad would never go anywhere without letting them know they were leaving, as well as where they were going and when they expected to be back. And they would never have gone anywhere in the Digiworld without taking Palmon with them. But the triplets could tell the grownups were trying _really hard_ not to worry them, so they, in turn, pretended not to be worried.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo that entire team had assembled and was working on it from their end. So far the only thing that anyone had ascertained was that everyone with a Digimon who had been actively running their computer at the time had the same windows of numbers open up in mid-air which Palmon had observed at Shawn and Mimi's. But Shawn and Mimi were the only people who had a hole open at their feet to swallow them up...


	4. Welcome to Oslo, Japan

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

_Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok_ and associated characters and concepts are © Sakura Kinoshita

**Welcome to Oslo, Japan**

Near the park restrooms an auburn-haired boy in a fancy frou-frou suit with short pants sat on a bench. A tall slim man with dark hair tied back in a ponytail was speaking to him. He was apologizing by saying "I'm sorry, Master Loki, but I haven't any idea where Mayura and Fenrir could have gotten to – I haven't been able to find them anywhere."

The young boy seemed unconcerned. "No doubt they'll turn up when they get hungry," he said calmly, then, as the puppy bounded up to him, he stated, "Ah, here they are now."

The ditzy girl was running behind the dog. "Loki – I found a Strange Mystery for us!" she called.

Shawn and Mimi exchanged a look. _This girl is somewhat fixated on mysteries_, Shawn thought. On the other hand, he could see if your name was Loki why you might name a dog Fenrir. And Shawn didn't mind ditzes – he'd fallen head over heels in love with one and married her after all.

Then Shawn did a double take. The signs on the restroom doors were clearly labeled in Japanese – Shawn knew some Japanese; being married to Mimi he'd had to try to learn her language, as she spoke his so beautifully. Shawn knew plenty of places in New York where the signs were written in Japanese, but they were also written in English, along with Spanish and German and French, and half a dozen other languages. There were also lots of places where the signs might be only in Spanish, or, in Chinatown, Chinese obviously, or a few other languages in various of the other old ethnic neighborhoods, but nowhere in New York that they'd be solely in Japanese. Nowhere near Central Park anyway. Of course New York _was_ a big place...

The puppy woofed a long sequence of barks to which the man and boy both seemed to be listening intently.

"Fell from window in the sky?" the boy asked. How had he known that?

The boy didn't seem overly concerned, only puzzled. The dog barked some more, but the girl interrupted, "More like a glass pane full of numbers. They just fell out of it. Onto Fenrir."

This seemed a bit unfair – Shawn hadn't actually landed on the dog – and he certainly hadn't done it on purpose. Perhaps it was time to assert himself.

"Uh ... not exactly. Not onto him. Beside him, really." And then, because it seemed the thing to do, he introduced himself.

"Uh – I'm Shawn – this is my wife, Mimi." He started to shake hands and then hesitated. Mimi must have already unconsciously registered the restroom signs because she was making her most correct and formally polite bow. So Shawn bowed also, even though his was never as graceful as Mimi's, no matter how hard he tried.

The boy stood and returned the bow. Still calmly he said, "I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Loki; this is Yamino, and Mayura and Fenrir," as he indicated the man, then the girl and the dog.

The whole conversation suddenly felt slightly surreal. This wasn't helped by the boy prompting, "So you fell out of midair?"

Shawn, who, because of this kid's obvious maturity, had started to revise his first estimate of the kid's age upward by a few years, took a breath to begin explaining what had happened, and then hesitated, at a total loss.

Not so Mimi, who on very rare occasions could be incredibly succinct. "No. We fell through a hole in our floor in New York and we landed here." She paused a moment, then said, "We're in Japan, aren't we? That's Mt. Fuji in the distance, and I'm guessing downtown Tokyo is off that way. The hole in our floor didn't exist before we fell into it."

Suddenly she covered her mouth with both hands, turned huge scared eyes to Shawn, and gasped, "The children!"

"Palmon...," Shawn choked up, grasped Mimi, held her close, and for a moment could not go on. He swallowed and, for Mimi's sake, pulled himself together. "Palmon will cope – they'll be safe with her. Don't worry." Like he wasn't...

"There are children involved?" Loki asked.

"Our girls – they were left behind..." _...please, oh please, let them have been left behind..._ "and Palmon is capable – more than capable – but they're so young. So very young..." Shawn met Loki's green eyes over the top of Mimi's head.

"Palmon's your maid?"

"No, my Digimon," Mimi murmured, still buried against Shawn's chest. "She'll Digivolve if anything happens, but..."

This was met with a startled, blank silence from everyone, even the puppy, who seemed to have been listening to the whole exchange. Shawn got the distinct feeling that none of them had ever encountered a Digimon. He was also glad to see this kid _could _be surprised. He had unconsciously been continuing his upward revision of Loki's age – no matter how young he appeared, he acted and reacted like an adult.

It was Yamino who asked the obvious. "What exactly is a Digimon?"

And Mimi launched into an explanation that was more her usual style, involving how Digimon came from the Digiworld; only they'd first gotten theirs when she and Tai, Izzy, Matt and the rest had been sucked into the Digiworld; how lights from the sky had dropped devices at their feet and she'd been separated and chased and found, and Palmon had evolved into Togemon to fight a giant Teddy Bear who was actually also a Digimon and who was really nice only he'd been hit by a black gear and those, it turned out, had been sent by an evil rock star monkey Digimon, only before all that happened Tai's Digimon had Digivolved and then everyone's had done so to fight together and protect the children because, of course, this had happened years ago when they were around Loki's age...

_The age Loki appears to be,_ Shawn thought to himself.

...and then later on they'd found the crests, one at a time, and she'd gotten hers, which helped Palmon Digivolve; and they'd gotten back home, and no time had passed _at all_ but then bad Digimon started to come into the world because they were being sent...

Mayura's eyes were shining and her hair practically gave off sparks of excitement because she had just found the mystery to end all mysteries, but everyone else, even Fenrir the dog, was looking a little glazed.

And at this rate they might be here all day. Shawn decided he'd better take over the explanation. He held up one hand to stop Mimi in midflow.

"A long time ago, when Mimi was younger than Mayura here, she went away to summer camp. While she was there, she and some of the other campers were sucked into the digital world – a world that is connected to the energy that comes from computers and other electronics. While they were there they each found, or rather were found by, a creature which believed it had been waiting for its special person to appear. These creatures called themselves Digimon, short for digital monsters. They could change into a more powerful form when needed, usually two or three times, depending on the level of the threat."

Continuing, Shawn said, "Mimi's Digimon is Palmon – in her weakest form she is actually Tanemon and looks rather like a giant, floating turnip. Her first evolution – Digivolution – is Palmon, whose head stills looks turnip-like, but who has arms and legs and a short tail, and this is the form she likes best and usually takes. Her next form up is Togemon, which looks like a giant barrel cactus in boxing gloves and she's fairly dangerous in this form – she can shoot thousands of cactus needles out in all directions, for instance, as well as packing a wicked right hook. After that she can become Lillymon, who looks like a cross between a lovely flower and a rather sexy fairy, and, in spite of her delicate appearance, she is even more dangerous at this stage."

"And she's watching the kids," he added. "They'll be all right." _Hopefully_, he thought to himself.

Oddly, it was air-headed Mayura who broke the silence first.

"But you don't know for sure, do you? So you have to get home," she said compassionately.

She flashed around to Loki. Hands on hips, she stated, "That's it then. You have to take this case! We have a duty to solve it!"

"Mayura..." he started in a tone of long suffering patience. But she cut across.

"No. Kids need their parents. They need their mothers, and if they can't have them, they need their fathers. The agency has to take the case!" she repeated. Russet brown eyes locked with green ones in uncharacteristic firmness.

...And, surprisingly, Loki caved. That was the only word for it; Shawn could practically feel the inrush of air as something unseen gave way. Loki glanced back at Shawn and Mimi.

"You have no place to stay, of course. You'd better come home for supper and I'll have Yamino make up one of the spare rooms."


	5. Where On Earth DID They Go?

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

Kitsune is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Lord Kitsune and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below show and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

**Where on Earth **_**DID**_** They Go?**

In the real world Willis had performed a system dump of Shawn's PC to see what had been running at the time they'd disappeared. While he tried to make sense of the computer's actions, Shawn's friend Kitsune was searching for clues in what Shawn had last been working on. He'd looked at the translation data that had been converting the web pages to English, then Italian and Russian, amongst other languages, ending with the attempt at Klingon just before everything had broken apart into pure code. Concurrently, as near as he and Willis could figure, the PC had started to run equations that seemed to be trying to compute irrational numbers.

Kitsune had been cutting and pasting equations into Google's search function and he was pulling up references to chaos theory and string theory and even one to Schrödinger's cat. At the moment he and Willis were on a very expensive conference call to Tai and Izzy in Tokyo.

"Yeah, Schrödinger's cat – the one that's both alive and dead at the same time, until you open the box and look at it..."

"I still don't get it," said Tai. "How can it be both?"

"That's what I'm telling you – it's your looking at it that affects the cat – the observation affects the outcome of what's observed." Here Kitsune was trying to explain finer points of quantum theory, which he didn't really understand in the first place, to Tai, when the important thing was to find Shawn and Mimi.

Tai must have come the same conclusion. "So what does this have to do with –?"

Izzy, who was following the conversation at the same time that he was up to his elbows in the raw code Willis had sent streaming his way down the internet, broke in. "Look, it's a metaphor; it doesn't matter. What matters is that the normal laws of everyday physics break down at the subatomic level – reality changes. And Shawn's computer – all our computers – seems to have been trying to deal with that somehow."

"So why didn't we all get sucked into the Digiworld?" Tai asked.

"I don't know yet!!" Izzy shouted – he was losing patience. He made an executive decision – the fastest dedicated connection still had a delay, and good as Willis was with computers, Izzy was better – he could make them sing. "I'm coming to New York," he said into the phone. "I can probably make it in five hours – four if I get lucky. I'll see you at Shawn's."


	6. We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

_Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok_ and associated characters and concepts are © Sakura Kinoshita

**We're Not in Kansas Anymore...**

One of the spare bedrooms indeed... Loki's house was a not-so-small, if slightly creepy, mansion. In front a discrete sign announced, "The Mythical Detective Agency."

The first thing Mimi tried was calling Tai. His number didn't work. She tried Izzy's – and got someone who'd never heard of him. She tried his secretary, and that wasn't any good either. Shawn was getting suspicious by this time, so he checked the phone book. IzTech Industries didn't exist and no one they knew in Japan was listed. They tried directory assistance and struck out there, too.

So Mayura volunteered to lead the tour of the house while Yamino started dinner. Loki and Shawn fell in silently behind – it was quickly obvious the two women were sister-spirits at heart because soon they were jabbering away a mile a minute about everything from the Digiworld to Atlantis to whether or not the government actually _was_ hiding anything at Area 51. Shawn doubted he or Loki could've gotten a word in edgewise, what with all the female bonding going on. He spared a passing thought to wondering why he was following the conversation so well – his Japanese was passable, but he was nowhere near as fluent as Mimi was in English.

The girls continued their instant friendship all through dinner, until Mayura had to go home. Then Loki invited Shawn and Mimi into his study.

"Tell me in detail just what happened before you – almost – fell on Fenrir," he requested.

So Shawn explained about running Babblefish, which suddenly went crazy and started translating webpages into unasked-for languages; about the windows opening into the Digiworld which filled with hex code, then with ones and zeros; and about the hole opening at his feet and how he slid in, then how Mimi had lunged and been trapped along with him. Mimi chimed in with a description of how her Digivice unexpectedly lit up, and how Palmon had looked up, in shock, to say the Digiworld was tearing apart.

Shawn could almost see the gears going around in Loki's mind as he digested this.

They all sat for a moment in thought, then Loki said, "It seems we need to get you back though one of those windows – and to do that we'll need to recreate one first. I have a translation program on my computer – what were you researching?"

"Ancient frescos and mosaics, specifically those illustrating a known narrative, and how these compare to modern graphic novels."

This was met with a rather stunned silence on the part of both Mimi and Loki. _Never say I can't stop a conversation, _thought Shawn. He added apologetically, "I was helping a friend with a term paper – he knows I'm into animation, and ... uh –" He trailed off.

Loki blinked. _Good – I can surprise him. Nice to know he isn't totally unflappable._

Then Loki said, "Well, we certainly can try to recreate that."

He led them over to a corner cabinet. It opened to show a state-of-the-art PC setup, complete with a printer/scanner, oversize flat-screen monitor, top quality speakers with subwoofers – the works. Izzy might even have approved.

Loki booted up the machine, brought up a metasearch engine, and plugged in some terms. As the first hits came in, he refined the search, selected for "any language" and started skimming the new set of results. Sure enough, in among the various articles were some in languages other than Japanese. Loki chose one in English, pulled up the translation program, and started feeding the article through to it.

And they waited.

And nothing happened.

"We need to connect to the Digiworld," Shawn said. _Duh_, he thought to himself. _Nothing like stating the obvious._

But it had been the catalyst that Mimi needed.

"Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed. "Oh, I can do _that_!"

She pulled out her Digivice, explained to Loki, "We use these to help our Digimon Digivolve," and activated it, just like she did when Palmon was changing into Togemon. As usual, a light flashed from the Digivice...

* * *

...Back in the real world Palmon suddenly looked up – for a moment she could have sworn she'd heard Mimi call her...

But no. It was gone.

If it had ever been...

* * *

...Back in the real world Loki's computer changed from English to Russian, to Urdu, to hex code. A small square of light, looking considerably like a window, popped up, floating in the air, and filled with ASCII numbers. It slowly began to expand, and both it and Loki's PC changed to flowing zeros and ones.

And Loki held his hands in front of him, palms flat forward, and out of thin air pulled a crescent-headed, ribbon-wrapped staff dangling a ring. He swung it in a slow, deliberate arc to point it at the floating window, said a phase that refused to translate into either Japanese or English – and the floating window shifted to a slowly rotating lozenge-shaped pane of glass. The pouring numbers froze in place.

Shawn and Mimi both gaped, and Shawn found himself lunging for sanity again, while Loki calmly circled the slowly rotating diamond, looking at it from all sides.

In an aside, Loki said, "I don't usually do this in front of..." He hesitated a moment, then substituted, "...normal people," for whatever he had been going to say. "But normal people don't fall between universes, do they? So you're hardly usual."

"I need to think about this," he continued. "Can we talk again in the morning?"

So Mimi and Shawn left him contemplating a diamond-shaped pane spinning in midair.

* * *

Yamino was the perfect majordomo – he could have stood in for Jeeves. Not only had he made up the bed in a sumptuous room, he had also left out small packets of necessities for each of them – toothbrush and paste, soap, shampoo, a shaving kit for Shawn, a change of underwear and night things for both, some basic cosmetics for Mimi – along with a carryall sling that would have done fine for carry-on luggage. Heavens knew how he had obtained it on such short notice.

Ready for sleep, Mimi collapsed on the edge of the bed. She looked up at Shawn.

"Will the children be okay?" – in the privacy of their room she no longer had to keep up appearances, and the tears began to flow. He reached for her, pulled her close, and together they fell back onto the bed. She buried her head against his chest and now she was crying in earnest.

He thought of the triplets, how small they had been when first born; the awesome wonder he'd felt when he first held them. Of how he'd then realized he would kill for them, or die for them if necessary, in order to keep them safe.

Mimi cried herself to sleep that night. Unknown to her, Shawn lay awake for hours, staring at the ceiling, tears leaking from his eyes as well.


	7. Translation Tables

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below show and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

**Translation Tables**

Back in the real world, Izzy was halfway to New York on a specially chartered experimental plane that officially didn't exist. He'd called in a favor because his own personal corporate jet wasn't fast enough. Occasionally it came in handy to have founded your own successful software monopoly – you knew people with highly unusual toys and you had the money to borrow them for an evening. In New York one of his company's cars was already standing by to whisk him off to Shawn and Mimi's home.

Meanwhile, he'd been sifting through Willis's data dump, trying to sort out the essential difference that had caused a wormhole to open at Shawn and Mimi's, and nowhere else. Teasingly, an idea lurked just out of reach.

He started again looking at the beginning of the data dump. Suddenly he smacked his forehead as the metaphorical lightbulb came on – Shawn had been running Babblefish.

They had been translated.


	8. Farewell to Midgard

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

_Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok_ and associated characters and concepts are © Sakura Kinoshita

Heimdall was probably an indulgence in this chapter... What can I say? I like Heimdall...

I have no idea if the Norse Gods believed in sacred guest right or not -- my concept of sacred guest right is based mainly on Andrew Greeley novels. But there really were Norse kings of Dublin around the year 1000, so it seemed within the realm of possibilities.

For anyone unfamiliar with the show _Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok_ Frey really does have a ship that unfolds. And it really exists in actual mythology. Those Viking types had wild imaginations!

I think I have my one mistake in this chapter – I'm fairly sure that in the anime Loki knows that Mayura has seen Frey's folding ship.

**Farewell to Midgard**

The next morning, Yamino had made a breakfast to die for – freshly ground coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, a selection of teas, pastries, jams, jellies, eggs and sausages... Mimi and Shawn discovered what armies had known for centuries – a full belly does wonders for your courage. Yamino could cook for them anytime.

Halfway through the meal Loki joined them, followed by Fenrir who promptly started begging table scraps. "As best I can tell, when you passed through the Digiworld, you came out in a slightly parallel universe," Loki said. "I think this world and yours co-exist side by side, so to speak, but the only intersection point is the Digiworld. The separation between these universes is normally impermeable so you enter and exit the same dimension, but for some reason that didn't hold up so you came out here instead. I think I can get you back inside the portal you fell through, but I make no promises for what will come after, however I'm fairly certain my power will end at the threshold unless I come with you, and unfortunately I have business in this world I must finish, so that is not an option. So the question becomes, 'Are you willing to risk it?' "

Shawn and Mimi looked at each other. This time yesterday Shawn would've considered this crazy talk, but that was before his reality had been stood on its head. And anything was preferable to the way Mimi's heart had broken the night before. He squared his shoulders and asked, "What do you need us to do?"

"I think it should be possible to expand the portal and drop you into it ... so to speak. But after that it'll be up to you."

"How do you plan to drop us through?" wondered Mimi. "Can you lay it on the floor here, and have us jump in?"

"Actually, I think it'll have a far better chance of success if you exit were you came in," Loki said. "Since you fell out of the air in the park I think it's going to be unfortunately necessary for you to fall back into the portal there."

This sounded less than good.

"Just how can we do that?" she asked.

"Well ... I'm going to have to ask a friend for a favor." Then Loki looked at the dog.

"Fenrir, will you ask Frey to meet us at the park where we were yesterday? At, oh, about 10:00 a.m. should do nicely. And tell him to bring Neo-Skidbladnir."

And, just as though he'd understood every word and had a message to deliver, Fenrir barked once and trotted from the room.

* * *

So Shawn and Mimi finished breakfast, packed their new things in the handy little carryalls, and returned to the park along with Loki and Yamino to find Fenrir already waiting with a tall brown-haired man in a dark cloak edged with knotwork trim – Shawn wondered if he was a reject from one of those pseudo-medieval societies. He wasn't alone however; accompanying him was a short kid with his hair flopped over one eye, who, except for leather gauntlets, was at least dressed normally. He was also accompanied by the pink haired girl from yesterday, and he had a balloon that looked like a floating mechanical pig – but by this time Shawn wouldn't have taken any bets on anything being what it seemed.

Both Loki and Yamino looked less than pleased with the additional recruits. "Frey, I don't think..." Loki began.

"Oh, I've seen his boat before." Mayura interrupted. This was met with a rather shocked silence. "It's very cool!" she added to Shawn and Mimi in the quiet her previous words had created.

"Do you think that was wise?" Loki questioned Frey.

"It made perfect sense at the time." Frey was supremely unconcerned.

"Nevertheless, the fewer people who observe this, the better. One of the advantages of this park is it is almost always deserted this early. Besides, if this doesn't work, things could get ... interesting."

"Are you saying it might not be safe?" asked Frey. Suddenly he was kneeling in front of Mayura. "My Classic Japanese Beauty, you mustn't risk yourself! If anything were to happen to you it would be a tragedy beyond bearing!"

_He's got it bad,_ Shawn thought to himself. He could remember acting this twitterpated when he'd first met Mimi.

Mayura simply looked bemused. "I've told you, you can just call me Mayura."

Frey blushed bright red at this, and seemed totally tongue-tied. _Yep,_ Shawn decided, _he's got it bad and that ain't good..._

Frey turned to the short kid, who hadn't been introduced.

"You must take her somewhere safe – I'm trusting you, Heimdall! Take her –" and he stopped, at a loss for a place to stash Mayura.

"Why don't you and Yamino escort Miss Mayura back to my house?" Loki suggested. "You can fix lunch – if this doesn't work I'm sure we'll all be wanting something."

And so Yamino took his leave most properly, and the last Shawn and Mimi saw of them was a small parade disappearing in the distance – the ponytailed man, followed by the pink-haired girl, followed by the short kid.

* * *

Heimdall wasn't happy. Babysitting this stupid idiot girl Frey had fallen head over heels for, and having to cook in Yamino's kitchen to boot wasn't his idea of fun. Yamino was one damn good cook – not that Heimdall had any intention of admitting that out loud – and the way his luck was running lately Thor would no doubt show up to cadge a free meal (he usually did), and no matter that _he_ was cooking under a false name, Thor could use any name he wanted, and any restaurant in town would jump at the chance to hire him. Well, maybe not the five star establishments, but Thor could get a job for the asking in any of the mom and pop joints. When on earth had he learned to cook Japanese anyway? No doubt about it, Thor got around...

So he, Heimdall, would have to be on his mettle to hold his end up; he was damned if he was going to let them get the better of him in any kitchen.

And the hell of it was, it was Loki's kitchen. A perfectly good opportunity to assassinate the guy, messed up by sacred guest right. If some idiot Norse king hadn't decided that conquering Dublin was a good idea a thousand-odd years ago, it might not have mattered – but everyone had hung out in Ireland just long enough to pick up the idea that you could kill a man in cold blood, or in hot, over any insult, real or imagined, but _not_ while you were a guest at his table and in his home, or, for that matter, he in yours. And the hell of it was, Loki _knew_ it, and would be sitting there laughing at him the whole time.

No, Heimdall was not happy. He went off grumbling in their wake.

* * *

Back at the park as soon as the little parade was out of sight, Loki led those who were left to where the trees grew thickly at the back of the grounds. They came to a grove with a bit of a clearing and the only warning they had was Frey asking, "Ready?" Then he took a small square of dark paper out of a pocket inside his shirt and gave it a flip. And it unfolded.

And unfolded...

And **UNFOLDED**...

And there was suddenly a ship floating in mid-air. Not a boat – a ship. It looked rather like a classic Viking warship had mated with the Millennium Falcon. _No, scratch that,_ Shawn decided, _– with an Imperial Cruiser,_ considering the gun turret mounted amidships.

Shawn made one last, almost futile snatch at sanity, got a grip on it, fought to close his gaping mouth, and glanced at Mimi to find she was in the same condition.

"Like it?" asked Frey. He looked proud, as any captain should, and just a tad bit smug.

Sometimes the only thing keeping you from descending into madness is your sense of humor. Shawn looked at Mimi and quipped, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more."

And Mimi collapsed in giggles, caught her breath, and added, "Lions and tigers and bears, OH MY!" – which of course set Shawn off.

He got himself back under control, caught her eye, and made the mistake of adding, "And rabbits!" And then they had only to look at each other to lose it again; they were both laughing so hard their sides hurt and their eyes were watering.

Frey, Loki, even Fenrir and the pig balloon were looking at them as if they had finally lost their minds. Shawn gasped, "I guess the movie doesn't exist here..."

And Mimi invited, "If you ever get to New York – our New York, that is – we'll watch it with you."

"What's it about?" Frey questioned.

"It's about..." and suddenly Mimi grew pensive. "It's about going home."

All the laughter drained out of Shawn. He looked seriously at Mimi and gave her a soft smile. "Next time we'll pack the ruby slippers," he said. And Mimi smiled softly back. God, he loved her...

He took a deep breath, looked up at the floating ship (something was bothering him about that ship – besides the fact that it couldn't possibly exist, of course – and he wished he could put his finger on it) and then he looked back at Frey, to ask, "So ... what now?"

"We board, of course," said Frey.

The mechanical pig floated up and nudged a rope ladder which dropped down to land at their feet. Mimi and Shawn followed Loki, who was carrying Fenrir, up onto the ship, with Frey bringing up the rear. As they stepped on deck, the ladder rolled back into place and the ship rose higher – and a couple facts from a half-forgotten myth and legend class drifted to the top of Shawn's consciousness. The cogs turned, the tumblers fell into place, the kaleidoscope shifted to make a new pattern, and he added two plus two to make five, because he realized just who, or what, they may have been talking to.

_Why Tokyo?_ he thought wildly. _Why not Oslo? Or Minneapolis? Or Lake Wobegon? _Then he thought _...maybe in our world they are in Minneapolis – they have lutefisk in Minneapolis..._ And making a final grab at sanity, he lashed it and himself to a figurative mast and vowed he would stay away from Minnesota. Far, far away. Just. In. Case.

Mimi was handling the whole experience much better than Shawn was – but then Mimi had been used to being sucked in and out of the Digiworld since she was a kid. Little surprised her these days and it took more than a shift between universes to upset her equilibrium; she'd been doing it for far too long. She saved her panic for threats to her children or her world, so she was finding the whole experience charming and the view exhilarating. The wind of their passage was ruffling Shawn's hair, but her hat as usual stayed on as though glued.

As they rose higher, Shawn wondered what they looked like from below – surely someone should notice a flying Viking ship? Loki must have sensed his puzzlement because he said, "People tend to see what they want to see – a ship can't fly, therefore there is no flying ship. Skidbladnir tends to be mistaken for a cloud, or a helicopter, or a UFO."

Shawn thought about that. "Most people can't see Digimon in our world," he offered. "Only the Digidestined, and those really close to them. It seems to partly be a matter of the Digimon choosing to be seen, but not entirely. For instance, I can see Palmon because Palmon chooses to let me see her; if she didn't want me to, I wouldn't. But I'm also able to see her because I'm in love with Mimi; if I and Meems didn't have a personal relationship, I wouldn't be able to see her either, no matter how badly she wanted me to. It was years before Mimi's parents could see her."

Loki digested this. "Mayura, who believes in ghosts and spirits and such, can't see them. She can't see Ecchan, who's – I guess "my familiar" is as good a word as any. Her father, who doesn't believe in any of these, can. I've never totally understood this..."

Then he shrugged and said, "Well, we should be high enough." He glanced over at Shawn and added nonchalantly, "If this doesn't work, we'll just circle below you, catch you, and then we'll have to think of something else."

He pulled the diamond pane of numbers from the simple shopping bag he'd used to carry it. It hung in the air before them. "Frey, can you drop anchor?" he called over his shoulder.

The floating pig released a catch and the ship came to a halt.

They stood for a moment in silence contemplating the diamond, which Mimi broke by asking, "Now what?"

Loki looked at her, and his face softened in sympathy. "If this goes right we drop it overboard, I unfreeze the numbers, let it expand, and, as soon as it's big enough, you dive in."

This sounded highly suspect to Shawn. He gave Loki his best Ya-Gotta-Be-Kiddin' look. Mimi, however, already was nodding.

"Yes, that should work," she said. "That should work perfectly! Especially if I activate my Digivice!" Shawn turned the Look on her – she was beaming.

Some arguments you just aren't going to win so you might as well not even try. Shawn had been married long enough to have learned this. Giving it up as a lost cause, he shrugged, mentally crossed his fingers, and said, "Well, I guess we'd better get on with it before we chicken out."

Loki took hold of the pane by its bottom and pushed it to the side of the ship, flipped it from vertical to horizontal, and dropped it over the edge. It floated for a moment and then very slowly began to sink. Loki again pulled the crescent-headed staff from thin air, pointed it, said a word that again refused to translate, and the numbers began to slowly move, then to spin faster. Fenrir put his paws up on the railing, wagged, and barked once.

The diamond shifted to an incrementally expanding window-shaped rectangle and Mimi started to climb up on the railing. Then suddenly she stopped, got back down, dug in her carryall, pulled out a lipstick, and bending to the deck, wrote their home address and phone number, along with her email address. Straightening, she said, "We can't thank you enough. We should've said goodbye when we had time, and now we can't – not properly. But if you ever get to New York you have crash space with us for as long as you need it. Anytime, open invitation for you and yours. No advance notice necessary."

Then she climbed onto the rail, reached down to help Shawn up in turn, and, holding his hand, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Together – we go together. On three. One... two..."

...And leaped.

* * *

She must have hit the Digivice with her other hand, because the light Shawn was used to seeing when she was swept into the Digiworld poured out of the square, and they followed it down into swirling zeros and ones.

* * *

Back in the real world Palmon's head jerked up. This time she was sure she'd felt something.

She looked at Izzy's Tentomon and could tell he'd felt it too.

But it was already gone again.


	9. Undersea

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

Psychedelic-man is an original character (or at least concept) and is copyright to me.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

_SpongeBob_ and associated characters and concepts including SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star, and Sandy Cheeks are © Viacom International Inc.

_The Beatles: Yellow Submarine_ and associated characters and concepts, in this case the Yellow Submarine itself, are © Hearst Corp. (King Features Syndicate Div.) and Subafilms Ltd. The Yellow Submarine sequence is loosely inspired by the original movie and Peter Max scenes therein. (The Yellow Submarine really exists; I believe it is in Monaco.)

**Undersea**

A hole opened up into the real world and Shawn and Mimi hurtled toward it. On the far side stood what looked like a yellow kitchen sponge wearing brown pants and a tie. Mimi and Shawn exchanged a look of disbelief.

"What on earth is that?" the sponge exclaimed, pointing toward the hole and them inside it.

A pink starfish appeared. "Ooooooo – pretty..." it said.

A squirrel, improbably wearing an upside-down goldfish bowl on its head, took one look and stated quite definitely, in a Texas accent heavy enough to drive spikes through bricks, "Whatever it is, it ain't natural!"

"Aiiee-ya!" shouted the squirrel and slammed a karate kick at the enlarging hole of numbers.

Which promptly collapsed, leaving Shawn and Mimi inside.

So they didn't fall through into that reality, but went somewhere else instead.

* * *

They seemed to have been doomed to come out underwater – the hole reopened and spit them out through something that looked extremely like a laundry chute onto the floor of a submarine. It was yellow, and it appeared to be abandoned, but it was definitely going somewhere...

Shawn looked out of a porthole. A marching band in turquoise and shocking pink uniforms was parading along the sea floor behind a drum majorette dressed in mirrors. It was from the reflections on her outfit that Shawn discovered the submarine was yellow.

Going the other way was a neon fish – a real neon fish whose sides flashed ads for restaurants and upcoming events.

Suddenly streaking past the sub in a classic Superman pose was a vision in lime green tights and a fuchsia and electric blue cape. Sparkling stars trailed in his wake as he aimed directly for a huge jeweled cork rammed into a cliffside rising from the sea floor. He hit it full tilt, causing the cork to give way and pop through, and the ocean began to drain into the hole that was left behind.

The submarine drifted slowly but inexorably toward the hole, which had the usual ones and zeros, but instead of the common black and white, these were in rainbow colors and a variety of constantly shifting shapes, and they pulsed to their own hidden rhythm. And Shawn and Mimi once again fell though to a different reality in the wake of Psychedelic-man.


	10. Pokepicnicking

Shawn is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Shawn and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission.

The Dayzees are original characters and are copyright to me -- as of this writing (Spring-Fall 2008) no official Pokemon named Dayzee exists.

The below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I disclaim all ownership:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts including Mimi, Izzy, Tai, Willis, T.K., Matt, Palmon, Tanemon, Togemon, Lillymon, Tentomon, Digimon, Digiworld, Digivice, Digivolution, Digidestined, and anything else known as "Digi-" are © Akiyoshi Hongo - Toei Animation; © Bandai

_Pokémon_ and associated characters and concepts including Ash, Dawn, Brock, Pikachu, Croagunk, Staravia, Piplup, Team Rocket, James, Jessie, Meowth, Wobbuffet, Nurse Joy, Paul, Gary Oak, the Johto, Kanto, Hoenn and Sinnoh regions, the Devon Corporation, Pokémon, Pokéball, Pokédex, Pokécenter, and anything else known as "Poké-" are © Pokémon; © Nintendo/Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK Inc.; © CHUNSOFT

* * *

_Yugioh!_ has a fan following that argues, sometimes rabidly, over whether to use the original Japanese manga/anime forms of characters' names or whether to use the 4-Kids dubbed versions. I can only assume that _Pokémon_ has a similar fan base. Be that as it may, my original audience on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forums includes many people with only a passing, if any, familiarity with the show, as well as its diehard fans, so I am using the more commonly familiar dubbed forms. I realize that some may be disappointed in this, but felt it was a necessary compromise for clarity for the less otaku among us.

Reviews are welcome.

* * *

**PokéPicnicking**

A small walking flowerpot and a small blue bird looked up at the sky. Two dark objects were hurtling down out of a light-filled square directly at them and both scurried for safety. The bird, who'd barely escaped, turned on her attacker, while the flowerpot cowered in a stand of tall grass.

Shawn and Mimi tumbled through numbers, slid, and were spit out onto the grass of the real world. This time they seemed to have landed out in the true countryside, not just in a city park, and as usual, Mimi's hat had stayed on.

Directly in front of Shawn's nose stood a tiny blue bird – a very angry tiny blue bird. "Piplup!" it squawked.

Apparently he'd just missed landing on it and Shawn thought nearly squishing small cute animals could get old in a hurry.

"Piplup!" it said furiously again, then it opened its beak and emitted a stream of bubbles – and suddenly Shawn and Mimi were soaking wet. Mimi squawked, rather like the bird.

"Hey! What do you mean by attacking Piplup!?"

Shawn shook water from his eyes and regarded a girl in pink and black with long black hair with astonishment. She stood, arms akimbo, hands planted firmly on her hips, and looked madder than the proverbial wet hen – which seemed a bit unfair considering she was dry and they weren't.

"Yeah – leave Dawn's Piplup alone!" A dark-haired boy in a red hat had come up behind her. "You can't just go around smashing into people's Pokémon!"

"We're sorry..." Leave it to Mimi to play peacemaker. "Sometimes my husband is rather clumsy." Leave it to her to blame him.

"We fell," Shawn apologized.

"Out of the sky," added Mimi.

This, of course, was met with looks of scepticism, but a taller, older boy with crisp dark hair stood up from behind some bushes where he'd been sheltering from the small bird's bubble attack.

"It's true – I saw it happen," he said. "A square opened in midair and they fell out of it, almost hitting Piplup and one of those strange Pokémon we saw yesterday in the process. They couldn't have stopped if they'd tried."

Then suddenly he threw himself to his knees in front of Mimi. "Beautiful lady," he cried, "are you all right?! Let me help you!"

A light shone from his pocket and a frog appeared out of its glow. The frog stuck up a leg, another glow came from the end of its foot, and it jabbed the boy, knocking him heels over head backwards.

"Croagunk!" it yelled, standing over him. The black-haired girl turned her fierce look on them.

"Can't you see she's with someone? Honestly, Brock!"

She apologized to Shawn and Mimi, "Don't mind him – he's like this with all the girls – every single one he meets. But I don't think he'd know what to do with one if he caught one..."

She paused a moment in thought, and the blue bird ran to her to take shelter in her arms. As she stood up with it, she said, "You'd better come with us – anyone falling from the sky probably needs all the help they can get."

So Mimi and Shawn found themselves once again tagging along.

Later, around a campfire, they explained the adventures they'd had up till the present, and how they'd left their own world and families, as well as Palmon and the other Digimon and Digidestined behind. Brock cooked while they talked; Brock's cooking might be less elegant than Yamino's meals, but for something made over an open fire, and partly from scavenged berries, it looked fancier than they had any right to expect, and it smelled wonderfully delicious.

The shorter boy, whose name was Ash, said none of them had noticed anything weird happening before Shawn and Mimi had dropped in from nowhere, but the girl, Dawn, begged to differ.

"Remember yesterday morning, both our Pokédexes went on the fritz?" she said.

"I still say it's just we have low batteries or something," Ash countered.

"And I say it's too coincidental for them both to go wonky at the same time – and then both clear up together," she shot back. "I'll grant you one might have a temporary glitch, but not both. Not at the same time."

This showed signs of settling into an argument, so Shawn decided to derail it before it could get started. He asked the obvious.

"What's a Pokédex?"

"You mean you've never seen one?" Ash asked surprisedly. He pulled out a red device slightly smaller than a paperback novel. "Pikachu!" he called, "come here a moment!"

An odd yellow animal which had been hanging about, and which Shawn had at first taken for a cat, ran over. Now that Shawn could see it better he realized it wasn't catlike at all; it was ... actually he wasn't sure what it was. Bright yellow with a red spot on each cheek and a lightning bolt of a tail, it was very cute, but looked like nothing he'd ever seen before.

Ash pressed a button on his boxlike device and a synthesized computer voice said:

"Pikachu. Mouse Pokémon. Pikachu is an electric type Pokémon. If it looses crackling power from the electric pouches on its cheeks, it is being wary."

Dawn pulled out an identical device in pink and aimed hers at her small bird.

"Piplup," it said. "Penguin Pokémon. Piplup is a water type Pokémon. It lives along shores in northern countries. A skilled swimmer, it dives for over ten minutes to hunt."

"That's what a Pokédex does – it identifies Pokémon. All Pokémon – well, the ones that have been discovered anyway," said Dawn.

Mimi looked puzzled. "What's a Pokémon?" she asked in turn.

This was met with bewildered, shocked looks from the three kids.

"Don't you _have_ Pokémon where you come from?" Brock was astounded.

"No." Shawn hadn't meant to bring the conversation to a screeching halt, but he again seemed to have accomplished this. The three kids looked at each other, wondering where to begin.

Ash, never afraid to bite off more than he could chew, decided to give it a shot.

"Pokémon are like animals, only they have extra, special abilities normal animals don't, rather like your Digimon. They mostly live in the wild, but they can also be raised by Pokémon breeders – that's what Brock is planning to be. They can be caught and trained for Pokémon battles, which are contests to see not only who has the stronger Pokémon, but who is the better trainer, since winning depends not only on the strength of your Pokémon, but also on how good a bond you have with it, because your Pokémon relies on you to help it choose moves to defeat its opponent and avoid its opponent's attacks. It's rather like a coach calling the moves for a sports team. For a good trainer, a Pokémon is more a friend that a pet – that's definitely how I feel about Pikachu. And I'm planning to be the best trainer ever!"

Shawn blinked. Goals were good, but...

Mimi, however, was charmed. "The best in the world?" she asked, her eyes wide.

"Uh, huh. I already have all my gym badges for the Johto, Kanto and Hoenn regions. I'm working on completing them for the Sinnoh region now."

"Yeah, with Paul one step ahead of you," Dawn inserted. "Not to mention Gary Oak."

"Hey!" Ash objected, "just because I lost the last time we battled –"

"And the time before, and the time before that, and before that," Dawn pointed out.

"Quit arguing," Brock broke in. "Dinner's ready."

Brock had not only cooked for them, he'd made additional food for the party's Pokémon. The three kids emptied small red and white balls from their satchels and pockets and pressed buttons on the front of these. The balls grew bigger, and sprang open, a light shot out of each and a variety of small and not so small Pokémon appeared – all of them bigger than the ball each had been in, even after it had enlarged. These all settled happily into eating, along with the humans.

The food was as delicious as it had smelled, and for a few minutes silence reigned. But then, curiosity got the better of Shawn.

"How do those balls work anyhow? Some of the Pokémon are a lot larger than the ball they came out of."

"Here." Ash tossed an empty Pokéball, which had shrunk down again, over to Shawn. He picked up another one and contemplated it himself. "Pokéballs work by – " He stopped.

"– You know, I'm not sure how they work," he said. "Brock?"

Brock pick one up and looked at it in thought. "I've never thought about it before – I haven't a clue. I don't even know who invented them. The Devon Corporation produces a wide variety, but..." He, too, broke off in puzzlement, and passed the ball to Dawn who looked equally blank.

"Well, it's electronic," she said. "I think. I mean, I know how it works, but not _how_, if you take my meaning. If you want to catch a wild Pokémon, you battle it first to weaken it, then you activate the Pokéball by pressing the button, and throw it at the Pokémon you're trying to catch. It traps the Pokémon inside and stores it – except sometimes the Pokémon escapes – and then it shrinks down so you can carry it around more easily. Carrying the Pokémon you've caught with you is how you make friends with it. So, anyway, when you're battling, you activate your Pokéball and toss it to release your Pokémon, and if you need to recall one from battle, you activate the ball again, hold it up and say 'Piplup – or whoever – return,' and the light comes out and sweeps your Pokémon up into the Pokéball for storage. But I have no ideal how it actually does all that."

They all looked at the Pokéballs.

"Gotta be electronic," Ash muttered.

Unknown to them, a dozen eyes regarded them surreptitiously from the undergrowth. Half a dozen mouths whispered back and forth to each other like wind blowing through grass. Six minds focused on the Pokéfood Brock had cooked, and thought, "Yum!

At a different angle to the clearing, four more pairs of eyes also watched hungrily.

"It's been hours since our last meal..." a female voice despaired.

"It's been days!" a male one answered.

"Well, if you two'd just learn to cook!" The first voice turned waspish.

"Hey, I shared my last candy bar with youse yesterday. Don't that count for sumthun'?" a third voice defended.

A fourth, looking at the lovely meal, just hopelessly whispered, "Wobbuffet..."

Meanwhile, the earlier dozen eyes had come to a decision. One pair of eyes gave a signal...

One moment everyone was contemplating Pokéballs, the next Shawn suddenly found himself unexpectedly lost in a snowstorm of flower petals. Mimi screamed, and he reached to protect her.

Ash yelled, "Staravia, blow them away with Gust!"

A black bird of a Pokémon flew up and whipped up a whirlwind with its wings, scattering the petals, but it was too late; the attack was already underway, and succeeding.

Half a dozen plants in flowerpots on short, stumpy legs descended on the Pokéfood, shrieking, "Dayzee!" In arms made from leaves on stems they scooped up as much food as they could while running full tilt, and took off for the opposite side of the clearing, stuffing their mouths as they ran. As they disappeared back into the bushes, the last one turned, shrieked "Dayzee!" once more, and stuck out its tongue as if to say, "Nah-nah-nah-nah-boo-boo!" before scuttling off.

Dawn still had her Pokédex out and had the presence of mind to activate it. Into the echoing silence left behind the attack it said:

"Dayzee. Flowerpot Pokémon. Dayzee is a grass type Pokémon that lives in meadows and at the edges of forests. Dayzees have a mischievous sense of humor, but are usually shy and rarely seen."

"...Aren't those what we saw yesterday, when our Pokédexes malfunctioned?" Dawn asked of no one in particular.

Farther back in the undergrowth Meowth was already plotting.

"Just think, the Boss can put one of those Dayzees on his windowsill where he'll see it every morning. He'll wake up, stretch, smell the flower, and say, 'Ah, Team Rocket has added brightness to my day and joy to my life. I'm so lucky have them.' "

"And he'll be so thrilled he'll reward us handsomely," Jessie purred, her empty stomach forgotten.

"But only if we catch one first." James was more practical, if not outright pessimistic. "I don't know – they moved pretty fast..."

"Don't be silly!" Jessie snapped. "We're not going to chase them, we're going to trap them!"

So Team Rocket retreated up the road a piece where they could dig a hole undisturbed.

Team Rocket has hole digging down to an art form – after all they've dug a lot of them over the years. They have inventing stupid disguises and quickly made props down to an art form as well, so it was the work of moments to come up with a ruse to lure the Dayzees, not to mention the twerps, over the top of their pit. Actually digging the hole, of course, took a bit longer since you can only rush physical labor so much unless you plan to keel over dead.

Still, in a surprisingly short time Team Rocket had a pit dug where the path met up with a flowing stream. The trap had been carefully disguised with branches and leaves, and they'd spread a net across the bottom just in case anyone got any bright ideas about trying to escape. They'd also decked Meowth out in an apron and chef's hat.

"Why me?" he protested.

"Because you sound like a pushcart vendor and you can cook – at least sort of – and James can't!" Jessie bossed.

"But how do you plan to get them over here when we don't actually have any food in the stand?" James asked perplexedly.

"We're going to advertise, of course," she said, getting out two sandwich boards, floppy hats and sunglasses.

Meanwhile Ash, Brock and Dawn, Mimi and Shawn had tidied up the remains of the disaster and salvaged what food they could. They'd managed to save enough that they'd fed all the Pokémon by dint of also splitting up and sharing their own meals.

Now they had a map of the entire Sinnoh region spread out. On the reverse side was a large section of the Pokémon world, including the Johto and Hoenn areas, as well as the Kanto where Ash and Brock had originally come from. As far as Mimi and Shawn could tell, neither New York, nor Tokyo, nor anywhere else they were familiar with existed in this world. Certainly none of the names of the cities were anything they recognized.

"Well, the closest town is that way," Brock said, pointing. "That's where we're heading and if you come with us maybe someone at the Pokémon Center will know how to help you. They're open specifically to aid anyone with Pokémon, but they won't turn anybody away. The Nurse Joys who run them are incredible!"

He'd gotten a starry-eyed, lost-in-space look suddenly and Dawn swatted him on the head.

"Focus, Brock!"

"It's too bad we didn't get a chance to catch one of those Dayzees," Ash added, packing up. "That Petal Dance attack was pretty powerful."

"Is that what it was?" questioned Mimi. "Lillymon does something similar but she shoots out vine strings that wrap things. Petal Dance was pretty, though – like a rainbow – and it smelled good besides. Lillymon would've liked it."

At last everything was packed away and they set off. Six hidden flowerpot-like Dayzees, seeing the chef of their dreams disappearing down the road, began surreptitiously to follow.

Some time later they rounded a bend in the road and looked down a hill where the land fell away toward a small riverbank to a slow moving stream that wound away between grassy banks. Shawn, seeing the unexpected there, blinked, rubbed his eyes, blinked again, glanced over at Mimi to double check that she too was seeing it – and wondered what a New York City pushcart vendor was doing set up out here in this wilderness. But there he was, with his portable grill, and he must've been doing all right for himself because he'd hired two hucksters to shout slogans for him, who were wearing mirror sunglasses and floppy-brimmed hats, and sporting "Eat at Joe's" signboards over their shoulders.

"Get 'em while they're hot! Best food in town!" called the male, who had blueish hair peeking out from under the edge of his hat.

"Best food out of town! Best on the road!" cried the female, whose red hair was also creeping out from where she'd jammed it up under her hat.

Shawn didn't actually smell anything cooking – maybe the wind was wrong? Somehow, something didn't feel quite right...

Dawn had no such qualms. She looked at Brock and wondered aloud, "Do you suppose we could take some with us? To eat later? Those Dayzees rather did a number on our supplies..."

The fickle Dayzees, still in hiding, seemed to have no doubts either. A hurried consultation took place and suddenly six flowerpots broke cover to race toward the stand. As they reached a leaf-strewn section of the road directly in front of it, the ground seemed to tremble, and then before Shawn's unbelieving eyes the path – simply – disappeared...

Five Dayzees were gone from sight, though a terrified chorus of intertwined "Zee!" and "Day!" had broken out. A sixth Dayzee had grabbed the edge of the pit that had opened up in the path and was hanging on for dear life; Shawn had gotten a momentary glimpse of its huge shocked eyes before it slipped from view. He heard it squeal and reflexes he didn't know he had took over. A dive like he was racing to slide below a fast ball thrown to home plate, and he'd grabbed the terrified Dayzee in a firm hold, and was staring into its wide frightened eyes as he hung upside down off the ledge with its edge cutting into his waist. In a twinkling Mimi has thrown herself down on her knees beside him, seized him by the belt and shirt collar, and, bracing herself, hauled him and the frightened Dayzee back up to safety.

"Hey! How dare you rescue our Dayzees!"

Shawn rolled onto his side and gaped up at the redhead whose hat, unlike Mimi's, had fallen off, letting her hair tumble to her waist. The blue-haired man, who still had his hat, said, "We should've known you twerps would try to interfere..."

Shawn could hear Ash yelling, "You leave those Dayzees alone!" from behind him.

"You just leave us alone, little boy!" the redhead yelled back.

Gaping, and totally flabbergasted, Shawn asked, "Who the hell are you?!"

The two whipped off their signboards. Underneath the woman was wearing a white miniskirt and midriff jacket marked with a large bright red R over a black crop top. It showed off her legs and bellybutton to perfection and Shawn found himself gaping for an entirely different reason.

She tossed aside the sunglasses and shouted, "Prepare for trouble!"

The blue-haired guy joined in with, "Make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples in our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!" she cried.

"James!" he answered.

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

The chef, who looked remarkably catlike close up, added, "Meowth! That's right!"

And a large blue balloon with eyes stuck its head up from behind the cart and finished the chant with "Wobbuffet!"

Shawn continued to stare up at the belly button. He was vaguely conscious of Ash and his friends exclaiming "Team Rocket!" in the background. He was more aware of the fact that Mimi was also taking note of the belly button – and of his expression as he looked at it.

Mimi was suddenly on her feet above and in front of him, her legs braced apart. He had an unexpected view up her skirt and Shawn found himself swallowing.

"You leave my Shawny alone!" Completely unaware of his predicament, Mimi was bravely getting in the stranger's face. After having stood up to a wide variety of evil Digimon in her day, hot tramp redheads in slut clothes didn't phase her in the least. And she didn't blame Shawn for looking – once in a while a guy'd have to be dead not to look – but if this attention-seeking female thought Shawn's attention was free for the taking, she had another think coming as far as Mimi was concerned. Besides, these people had just trapped a bunch of walking plants – Palmon was essentially a walking plant and so Mimi had just discovered she had a soft spot for these Dayzees, in spite of their annoying habit of stealing picnic lunches. She was well and truly ticked off.

"Let's make this easy – why don't you just hand that Dayzee over to me?" the woman commanded, looking down at Shawn.

Mimi moved to protect the Dayzee in Shawn's arms, cutting off his view of the belly button, but improving his view of her legs.

"I don't think so!" she shot back.

"Then we'll just have to take it from you," Jessie purred. But then her eyes focused on something behind them...

"They're getting away! James! Meowth! Wobbuffet! Pull up the net!"

The panicked Dayzees had taken advantage of the momentary diversion to try hoisting part of their number up and out the far side of the pit. Meowth and Wobbuffet leaped to start heaving on the net which slowly began to rise, collecting Dayzees on the way up.

James however wasn't paying attention. Lost in a daydream, he stared at Mimi. She was beautiful, with huge brown eyes and long brown hair; soft where Jessie was hard, but obviously no pushover – and he'd always liked strong women; he wouldn't have partnered with Jessie otherwise. And this woman had the most delicious hat...

"James!"

_Oh, right ... Jessie ... I'm supposed to be helping Jessie catch Dayzees..._ James fumbled his way back to reality to find Jessie looking at him impatiently. She already had an empty Pokéball out and activated, and was waiting for him to do the same. Meowth and Wobbuffet almost had the net of Dayzees up to the bank. What had he missed?

In the background he could hear the twerp calling "Pikachu! Thundershock attack!" That usually wasn't good...

But Jessie was looking at the pink-hatted woman in front of her. "He may be holding it, but you can't catch it – you don't have a Pokéball. So we'll just take it..." she pointed out.

That's right, they'd better both have a ball out because if the Pokémon escaped the first ball and he wasn't ready with a backup, Jessie'd kill him for sure. Or worse. James fumbled an empty Pokéball out and activated it. He focused on the Dayzee and threw...

...just as Jessie lobbed hers...

...and just as Pikachu's thundershock wave hit both of them, along with Meowth, Wobbuffet, the pushcart...

The two Pokéballs collided, they sprang open and the light from each one crossed with the other's. One swept the Dayzee up, out of Shawn's arms, just as the backwash from Pikachu's thundershock impacted with the balls' twinned energy fields. The red light from the second ball flickered momentarily with pouring numbers. The first ball, now containing a Dayzee, shrank down as it was supposed to, but the second, deprived of its hoped for Pokémon, and already rendered unstable by the three way collision between twin Pokébeams and the Thundershock attack, responded to the chaotic state currently existing in the Digiworld. Its electronics, knocked momentarily out of control, lurched to right themselves and latched onto a piece of irregularity.

The beam flickered again with numbers and settled into zeros and ones. Then the ball, with its software knocked askew by the Digiworld's instability and still trying to follow its own programming, focused on the nearest objects it could find. The light shot out, and swept up two bodies...

Shawn found himself clutching the first red and white Pokéball instead of a Dayzee. A reddish light was surrounding him and Mimi and the now familiar numbers were appearing. Everything seemed to grow larger – or else they were shrinking – then the light pulled them forward into a round sphere whose walls were made of insubstantiality and glowing numbers.

The last thing he and Mimi heard was "Team Rocket is..." then the Pokéball shrank down, as it should, and fell through a midair window of digits to disappear from reality.

"...washing away again!" finished Jessie, James and Meowth, as they floated downstream. Thundershock had knocked them, with their pushcart, off the bank into the river.

The Dayzees in the net had fallen back into the pit. So, in the real world, Ash, Brock and Dawn, along with their Pokémon, set about pulling them out.


	11. Things That Come in Threes

Things I do not own:

_Digimon_ and associated characters and concepts including Izzy, Tai, T.K., Matt, Palmon, Lillymon, Digimon, Digiworld, and anything else known as "Digi-" are © Akiyoshi Hongo Toei Animation; © Bandai

Kitsune is based on the Animated Lust (rated PG!) forum participant known as Lord Kitsune and, as such, is copyright to himself, and used with permission

**Things That Come in Threes**

Back in the real world Izzy was on the phone to Tokyo – he needed to bounce ideas off Tai. Of course, it was another expensive conference call that included everybody, but most of the conversation had been between himself and Tai with the various Digimon joining in and Kitsune offering the occasional comment based on the information he'd pulled up.

"Well, if the balance between data, virus, and inoculation programs has been disturbed –" Izzy was saying.

"Gone wacko, you mean?" Tai interrupted.

"Yeah. Theoretically, what would happen?"

"Theoretically? Well ... the Digiworld would go wacko, too – or at least more wacko than usual. You gotta admit, it's always been rather wacked at the best of times..." Tai was thinking out loud – brainstorming really – and as such there was a stream of consciousness feel to his conversation. "But can it get unbalanced to begin with? Out of sync? Wouldn't it just spit out more evil Digimon – or more good ones – instead?"

"Well, theoretically, it should be a self-regulating system – too much virus and it'll produce more vaccine programs to fight them – that's why our Digimon appeared and hooked up with us after all. Too much vaccine programming and not enough virus software, the vaccine will have nothing to eat, so to speak, and die off..." Izzy was also thinking out loud. "It should keep itself in balance – it shouldn't be able to _go_ out of sync."

"Wait –" T.K. had snagged an idea. "– It's the Gaia theory – well, sorta – not exactly..."

His statement was met with blank looks in Tokyo and blank silence in New York.

"Look, the Gaia theory holds that the earth itself is a living organism. If it got sick – say from pollution – it's going to send something to destroy what's making it sick – people for instance – in order to be healthy again, the same way your body sends white blood cells to fight off infection. So, yeah, the idea is that the world can get sick, but it's also going to try to get healthy again – your self-regulating system. See, the one doesn't necessarily exclude the other, so it follows that the Digiworld could get out of balance but that it'll also regain that balance. The ratio of virus to vaccine will keep each other in check because one can't survive without the other."

"So this could've come about because the Digiworld is seeking to rebalance itself?" Izzy wondered.

"Maybe..."

"Where does data fit into this then?" Izzy asked. "That's a big part of the Digiworld, too."

"Only a whole third of it," Palmon interjected. "I should know – I'm data. Even as Lillymon I'm a data Digimon, not a vaccine. You're thinking of a teeter-totter – a see-saw – but it isn't, it's a triangle."

"Of course!" Tai slapped his head. "Three point are always in one plane. I remember that!"

"Huh?" – it was a lot of "huhs" at once from a lot of different voices.

"Matt, you were in geometry with me – surely you remember the teacher cramming that down our throats," Tai continued; but it was Kitsune in New York who got it.

"Oh, duh! That's why a camera sits on a tripod. I knew that – I _knew_ it! What was I thinking?" It was his turn to get blank looks.

He tried to explain by saying, "Look – if you have two points, you have a line and – well, in theory it has no width – but forget that for a moment. Think about trying to balance a sheet of paper on edge – it's going to tip to one side or the other. And with four points, think of a four-legged chair and how often you've sat on one that has a slightly short leg so it keeps wobbling back and forth. That's because the points where the legs touch the ground aren't all in the same plane. But with a three-legged stool all three legs are always in contact with the ground, no matter how long or short each one is. Or how uneven the ground is for that matter. The three points are always in one plane – they can't not be. The plane may tilt, but it always accommodates all three points. So cameras are always mounted on tripods because a tripod is the most stable base there is."

And T.K. in Tokyo responded, " See, it _is_ a self-regulating system – it can't get out of balance."

"Except, of course, that it has," Matt said with a cold dash of reality. "Sorry, little bro, but something threw it off."

And Joe, who'd been thinking the whole time without saying much, suddenly had an epiphany. "Unless one leg of the tripod disappears... What if it goes from three to two? We're suddenly trying to balance that paper..."

"What if all three are necessary to the continued existence of the Digiworld?" T.K. wondered aloud. "I mean, we've always thought of the virus type of Digimon as just bad-ass troublemakers, but what if they're a necessary part of the whole. I mean, if it was created from data, virus and vaccine, maybe it stays in existence due to all three as well..."

And Joe made the connection. "Brahma, the creator. Vishnu, the preserver. Shiva, the destroyer. Vaccine, data, virus."

Into the echoing silence, Kitsune said, "Energy is neither created nor destroyed – its state is changed, right? I read that somewhere – it's neither created nor destroyed, it just has its form changed. Like electricity is converted to heat or light for instance..."

"It can be stored: preservation," responded Joe. "It can be transformed – one form is created and another is destroyed. Brahma and Shiva continually dance the creation and destruction of the universe, but the universe continues – and energy itself isn't destroyed, only the form it's in. ...It's the second law of thermodynamics," he added.

"So where does that get us?" said Tai, bringing this metaphysical discussion back to earth. "Exactly nowhere."

Kitsune threw his head back against his chair, closed his eyes and massaged the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache coming on. He was a writer, not a physicist, and he felt like he'd absorbed more science in the last twenty-four hours than he had in the previous sixteen years.

"It means they still exist somewhere," Agumon said.

Kitsune looked up.

"Yeah..." he said.

And then more hopefully, "Yeah. They do. We just gotta find them."

Richard Feynman was a genius -- not only did he invent Feynman Diagrams and figure out why the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up in the early eighties, his book _Six Easy Pieces_ actually explains the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics in language that I can understand! And if you think of scientists as stodgy, button-down types, read _Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman_ -- you'll never look at scientists the same again.

The idea of the universe being danced in and out of creation comes from both _The Tao of Physics_ by Fritjof Capra and _The Dancing Wu Li Masters_ by Gary Zukav. Shawn, it's your fault I have half the public library's quantum physics section checked out and have had for months...


End file.
